L.A. County reports 10 more COVID-19 deaths, along with over 1,000 new infections

Ten more COVID-19 deaths were reported by Los Angeles County health officials Wednesday, along with more than 1,000 new infections.

The new fatalities gave the county an overall death toll from throughout the pandemic of 33,719. Tuesday, the county reported the virus-related death of a person under age 18 — the 14th child to die of COVID-19 complications since the pandemic began.

Another 1,058 coronavirus infections were reported Wednesday, raising the cumulative total to 3,461,037 since March of 2020.

Daily case numbers reported by the county have been steadily falling for weeks, although health officials have conceded that the official figures could be misleading due to residents primarily using at-home tests that aren't reported to the county.

According to state figures, 501 coronavirus patients were in county hospitals as of Wednesday, down slightly from 508 on Tuesday. Of those patients, 65 were being treated in intensive care, down from 69 a day earlier.

Coronavirus hospitalizations numbers have been generally declining over the past few months, reflecting overall decreases in virus transmission in the county. In mid-July, more than 1,300 coronavirus patients were in county hospitals.

County officials have said that roughly 40% of those patients were admitted specifically for COVID-19, while the remainder were hospitalized for other reasons but tested positive upon admission.

As of Wednesday, the average seven-day rate of people testing positive for the virus in the county was 4.4%.